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Toronto. A 100-year-old runner became the oldest person to complete a full-distance marathon when he finished a race in Toronto on Sunday.

Indian-born Fauja Singh earned a spot in Guinness World Records for his accomplishment.

It took Singh more than eight hours to cross the finish line — more than six hours after Kenya’s Kenneth Mungara won the event for the fourth straight year. He was the last competitor to complete the course.

But his time wasn’t nearly as remarkable as the accomplishment itself.

Event workers were dismantling the barricades along the finish line and taking down the sponsor banners as Singh made his way up the final few hundred yards of the race.

Family, friends and supporters greeted him when he finished.

“Earlier, just before we came around the [final] corner, he said, ‘Achieving this will be like getting married again,’ ” said his coach and translator, Harmander Singh. “He’s absolutely overjoyed. He’s achieved his lifelong wish.”

Sunday’s run was Singh’s eighth marathon — he ran his first at age 89 — and wasn’t the first time he set a record.

In the 2003 Toronto event, he set the mark in the 90-plus category, finishing the race in five hours, 40 minutes and one second.

Singh also broke world records for runners older than 100 in eight different distances ranging from 100 meters to 5,000 meters.

Associated Press